William McKinley

Name: William "Will" McKinley

Gender: Male

Age: 18

Grade: Senior

School: Cochise High School

Hobbies and Interests: Hunting, hiking, running, sports, woodworking/carpentry,

Appearance: Standing at 6'1", and weighing 215 lbs, Will is an imposing figure. He has tousled, straight brown hair that comes to his collar, grey-blue eyes and fair skin, with a 'chiselled' rectangular face. His right eye is ever so slightly bigger than his left eye, and his nose seems to perfectly fit his face. Although according to BMI he is overweight, the extra weight he sports is muscle, not fat, which contributes to an impressive physique.

On the day of the kidnapping, Will was wearing a worn, brown-leather hunting jacket, black waterproof hiking boots and army-camouflage cargo trousers, with a thick black long sleeved t-shirt underneath his jacket. He was also wearing a heavy-duty analogue watch, certified to a depth of 30 meters. Underneath his jacket was a 3" knife with a wooden handle, but this was confiscated. The leather sheath, however, was sewn into his jacket, and so he still has it.

Biography: Born February 3rd, 1998 to Jonathan and Melissa McKinley, Will had a silver spoon in his mouth from the day he was born. His father was minor Scottish nobility, and a prominent politician in an up-and-coming new party, and his mother the re-married widow of a wealthy tycoon resulting in William never really wanting for anything as a child. He grew up in his father's ancestral home in Scotland, just a few miles south-west of Carrbridge. Will experienced the 'great outdoors' at a very early age. Will was only around 5 years old when he first started taking walks; although always kept under the watchful gaze of either his mother or the groundskeeper, Jacob, it wasn't long before he started venturing further into the woods that surrounded the estate. Said woods were full of a staggering variety of wildlife, mostly birds, but also deer, hare and the occasional boar, although he never saw the latter until he was much older.

This love for nature and constant trekking, stemming from an inquisitive mind regarding the world around him, and a physique to allow him to explore it for himself, has given him a rather practical wardrobe, most of his clothes being well-worn yet tough, and almost all of them are muted browns and greens. He also has a fair amount of army surplus clothing, including a duster and a number of cargo trousers. Being nobility, the scattering of social events he's attended has granted him with a few formal, and incredibly expensive suits.

When Will started school, his aptitude for long-distance running, team sports and in his later years DT, (otherwise known as Design and Technology, or Shop in the US) were unparalleled. Whilst not as fast as some, he had incredible stamina, and won numerous local awards for the cross-county, especially in his county. Unfortunately, however, Will never ended up competing at a national or international level. Will's love for running is much more practical than that for hiking or trekking; he views running as one of the best ways to stay fit and healthy apart from his regular visits to the gym, and his prowess and the rewards gained from it come as second. As well as cross country, Will plays Rugby as a prop, and Soccer as a goalie, and enjoys them tremendously.

Meanwhile, in DT, he was a fairly well-rounded student, with a particular aptitude for woodworking, often creating small puzzle boxes and whittling sculptures in his spare time. The ability to create something beautiful out of a hunk of wood and a blade is an ability that Will was astounded by as a child, and almost all of his woodworking efforts follow this initial amazement. These two subjects were, by far, his highest-scoring ones in terms of grades, and the ones that he enjoys the most.

Like a lot of his childhood friends, Will was introduced to hunting through his father, an avid marksman and ex-soldier, who had been the 'traditional' third son, and indeed his first ever hunt was with his father, for pheasants. This was his first time using a firearm, specifically, a Browning DG4 207 over-and-under shotgun. Later on in his life, he would also deer stalk and used a Mannerlicher M72 bolt-action rifle. These two guns became 'his' two guns, only used by him, as his father became increasingly occupied in a burgeoning political career and unable to hunt with him. To make up for this, he would be always be accompanied by Jacob, who was the one to take him on most of his hunts later in life. In fact, it was under Jacob's tutelage that he landed his first deer at the age of twelve, although he freely admits that Jacob did everything but take the shot.

As well as hunting, he also was a member of the Cubs group, and learnt many practical skills from them, although many have been forgotten over the years due to disuse. When in Cubs, he greatly enjoyed the numerous activities, especially the ones that required him to venture outwards. Shortly before his thirteenth birthday he joined Scouts, and it wasn't long after that he was gifted his knife. The knife was one of many in an army surplus store, and Will personalised it shortly after his move to America by engraving the words "Who dares, wins," the motto of the SAS, or Special Air Service, into the wooden handle. Although he normally never takes the knife out of the house, on trips that leave school property, such as his hunts, he tends to take it. He has sown the leather sheath inside his jacket, just below the armpit, and it's the only place he ever carries his blade.

When he had turned 13, William applied to the CCF (Combined Cadet's Force,) intending on pursuing a career in the military after school. Unfortunately, fate was against him as it was around this time that his father was engrossed in a scandal involving an alleged affair with his secretary. After he was found guilty of adultery, a very messy divorce ensued, and his parents unanimously agreed for him to move, sending him to his maternal Uncle and Aunt, who lived in America. The reasoning behind this was to remove him from the unstable family environment in Scotland, which had embroiled most of his close blood relatives, and allow him to 'stretch his wings' and experience a different country. Not wanting him to miss high-school, he was enrolled in Cochise against his wishes, and shipped off to America. Luckily for him however, exact wording in the divorce proceedings left him remarkably wealthy. Estimates suggest that he is worth over £150,000, although a large proportion of this money is frozen in numerous bank accounts until he becomes 21.

In America, Will has continued to excel as a sportsman, continuing to play the 'English' sports such as rugby and soccer, as a prop and goalie respectively. Sports is not the only one of his favorite subjects. He also greatly enjoys shop class, and both are easily his highest-marked subjects. Academically, Will isn't particularly good or bad, with a string of C's and B's running back to some of his first ever grades. He speaks English fluently and French semi-fluently, having had French lessons from a very young age. His least favorite subject is Maths; although he knows how useful it is, he doesn't quite understand why advanced maths is mandatory, and how it'll help him personally in his lifetime.

When he left for America, Will's Mauser and Browning were kept at home, to compensate he took up his uncle's Mossberg MVP series varmint rifle, and although his uncle does not approve of it, Will's knowledge of gun safety and experience with firearms persuaded him to allow his nephew to go out by himself. Most commonly he ends up shooting coyotes and rattlesnakes, but it isn't uncommon for him to bag prairie dogs as well. Regarding gun culture in America, he has a firm hatred for American 'gun nuts,' and is, in fact, surprisingly liberal with his views on firearm legislation, wanting stricter control, especially on semiautomatics and handguns.

At 'home,' (he doesn't consider his uncles' house a home,) he despises his uncle and aunts, considering them patronizing and overly protective and restrictive of him, much to his ire. He takes any chance to leave the house he can, which is one of the contributing reasons to his fairly social outward appearance, despite his rather gruff attitude. He's had multiple girlfriends throughout his time in America, and lost his virginity a few months before his 18th birthday, although he's no longer with the girl.

Will's also a practicing Protestant Christian, although it's extraordinarily rare to see him at church, as he tends to pray at home, or out hunting. In fact, his faith is a relatively small part of his life, and it might be more accurate to call him an agnostic with Christian leanings, although he'd never refer to himself as such.

Advantages: William is an excellent marksman with most bolt or semi-automatic rifles, as well as double-barreled and over-and-under shotguns. He's also extremely fit, and has a huge amount of natural strength and stamina to boot, as well as a decent knowledge of the outdoors. All of these are useful assets for the more natural elements of the island.

Disadvantages: Although fit, Will isn't as fast as some, since he plays in quite stationary positions in sports, his speed never needed to be used. He's also gruff, which is often misconstrued as him being rude, and his accent has been known to descend into the incomprehensible when he's stressed, angry or afraid. This communication breakdown could quite easily lead to a live example of how poor communication kills.

Designated Number: Male student No. 037

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Designated Weapon: One ten-pack of cable tie handcuffs

Conclusion: Aw, cute. The little boy thinks it's a hunter. There's a big difference between bagging a bird with help and a live person. Better learn quick or someone else will make you the prey and I'm sure some posh kids head will look good on the trophy wall.- Josie Knight

'The above biography is as written by Dannyrulx. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: Dannyrulx, Inge

Kills: Darius Van Dyke, Alex Tarquin

Killed By: Amanda Tan and Alex Tarquin

Collected Weapons: One ten-pack of cable tie handcuffs (assigned weapon, discarded), Colt Single Army Action (from Rea Adams, to Jonathan Gulley), Machete (from Alex Tarquin, to Jonathan Gulley)

Allies: Rea Adams, Amanda Tan

Enemies: Alex Tarquin, Darius Van Dyke, Michael Crowe

Mid-game Evaluation: Will woke in the doctor's offices on the asylum second floor, and found his girlfriend, Rea Adams, distraught. He comforted Rea as best as he could, but overheard Wade Cartwright in an adjacent room and told Rea to stay put, taking her weapon to investigate. Rea joined them, around the time Will decided Wade wasn't worth the trouble. Will wished him luck and then the two departed.

Will was too late to prevent a tragedy: Rea was accidentally stabbed fatally by Alex Tarquin when he rushed ahead into the supply depot storehouse. Will immediately opened fire with his gun, Alex fought back by toppling shelves but Will was able to take the blow and continue firing. They fought ferociously, wrestling for the gun at one point, but Will needing to reload allowed Alex to escape. Will angrily vented at the sole person remaining, the frightened observer Sabrina Luz, and left.

Will spent his second day on the island in a daze, keeping Rea's body close to him. He didn't encounter anybody until around midday on Day 3, when he saw Nadia Riva as he approached the northwest cliffs. Nadia was understandably put off by the fact that Will had been carrying Rea's corpse around for the past couple of days, and they engaged in terse conversation, with Will questioning whether Nadia had seen Alex and Nadia trying to convince him to stop carrying Rea around. Will relented, deciding to leave her body on the cliffs so that she could have a view of the ocean. Before departing, he and Nadia both reflected on their plans to survive the island, with Will reaffirming his decision that he couldn't let Alex live.

He returned to the asylum in pursuit of Alex, and heard his old friend Ben Fields, finding him while exploring the solitary cells along with Penelope Fitzgerald. Both were in a sad state, Ben openly sporting bullet wounds which he refused treatment for despite Will insisting. Instead Ben's attention was towards Penelope, whose mood was extremely dour, and Will only payed attention for Ben's sake. Penelope explained a plan to gather the class and have them die by mass collar detonation if they refused to further play the game, and Will was disinclined to believe the highly idealistic plan but went along with it for both Ben and Penelope's sakes, offering his own advice to try and comfort Penelope, which worked and helped her from the brink. Ben and Penelope both tried to get him to come along, and he was tempted, but he ultimately decided his quest for revenge was still the priority, leaving them with well wishes and Ben with some of his own medical supplies.

He slept alone in the doctor's office, ruminating on the regret of leaving the two behind and on the folly of his own quest. He was woken by the rummaging of Darius Van Dyke through his supplies. Will punched Darius away and demanded an explanation, a demand that was only met with a string of expletives and insulting jokes. Will tried to keep his patience and fire a warning shot, but Darius refused to be deterred, dropping more increasingly irrelevant insults and continuing to try and take swipes of Will's food. Will lost his patience and shot Darius for real, instantly killing him. Will fled the asylum, as he couldn't deny his guilt over the kill. He accidentally returned to where Rea had died as he fled, and the unwanted reminiscing only further solidified his sudden unease with the path he'd chosen, he was left grasping for the best way to proceed.

He returned to the asylum, his intent split between finding Ben and Penelope, or Alex. He found the latter, while exploring the water treatment rooms on a lark. He noticed traps set, and shortly after realized that Alex was the person who'd set them and started looking for him.

Someone else, Michael Crowe, had triggered the trap then misdirected Alex and sneaked up behind him, Will found them and opened fire immediately, unwilling to let Michael take the kill. Alex threw himself back onto Michael, saving both of them in the process. Michael was out of the picture and Will attempted to confront Alex mano y mano, daring his hated enemy to rise to a fair fight. But Michael proved to be a persistent distraction, first by failing to shock them and drawing Will's attention and gunfire with his screams, then by succeeding and shocking both of the others, keeping them apart and unable to properly fight as he landed blows with his shock knife. Will was able to kick Michael with his back turned, a blow to the genitals in retribution for one received earlier, and that allowed Alex to close the distance and brutalize Michael with an ax to the face. Will recovered the gun in the chaos of Michael being felled and tried to turn the gun on Alex but it had jammed due to the water in the room, Will prudently decided to flee and leave Michael to his fate.

He returned to the staff area of the asylum and found Amanda Tan in the storage closet, in tears. Thinking that offering a friendly shoulder to cry on might help make up for some of his less savory actions, Will called out to ask her what was wrong. She started to sob, and as they introduced themselves she asked why he was reaching out to her, his response was genuine and the two were both able to honestly admit their failures on island so far, Amanda summarizing her journey and how she'd failed as a leader and abandoned her allies. Will understood her plight, and was prepared to offer a temporary alliance to help Amanda find the friends she'd left behind, but they were interrupted by the highly unwelcome Alex Tarquin, who had survived the basement, and was once more armed and dangerous. Alex tried once more to rant about how he and Will were not so different but Will would have none of it and rebutted, Will quickly tried to end it but the gun jammed on him. Alex then got a good blow in with his machete, that forced Will to block with his own hand and take the wound. Amanda had a gun and tried to intervene, but she ended up shooting Will instead of Alex.

Will took the wound to the chest and went limp against the wall. He was spectator to Alex turning on Amanda, before Alex was ambushed by a Jonathan Gulley seeking revenge for Michael Crowe. The two fell into a brutal melee that Alex narrowly won out on, he began to assault a fallen Jon mercilessly. Will forced himself to rise, to take the machete Alex had lost in the scuffle and strike back at Alex, landing a blow to the gut that finally ended Alex's madness. Will watched Alex try one last time to monologue, before he abandoned Alex's corpse and a half-comatose Jon to check on Amanda with what was left of his energy. She was obviously despairing, he used the last of his conscious energy to assure her that it was alright and that she deserved to live. He reflected on Rea one last time, knowing he wouldn't be seeing her in heaven because of the price of his sins but content he'd avenged her memory and done some good with his last actions.

Post-Game Evaluation: Revenge gimmicks almost piss me off. Uninspiring way for this kid to have wasted the rest of his pointless time on this earth. - Trent Camden

Memorable Quotes: "I'm going to find him, and then I'm going to kill him, and then I'm going to win this fucking thing, go home and drink myself to death, because what the fuck else am I going to do?" -- Will to Sabrina, about his intent to find and kill Alex.

"As you said you've got people back at home waiting for you, probably plans too if you do get out of here (...) Me? I've got nothing, furthest I've come up with is drinking myself to death because I'm dramatic like that, specially since the original plan got fucked." -- Part of Will's reasoning for not joining up with Nadia.

''"I'll try and tell people of this, might get them to stop. Though since it's from me, they'll probably tell me to fuck off." ''-- To Ben and Penelope, regarding the latter's plan of pacifism.

''"Fuck your dick of justice!" ''-- The greatest quote of SOTF V6.

"I want to make things right for once Amanda and if I can help you, that'd be.. good." -- After acknowledging the depths of his sins to Amanda.

Other/Trivia

 * William shares a name with a former US President. Ironically, President McKinley also died some time after receiving an initially nonlethal bullet wound.

Threads
Below is a list of threads containing William, in chronological order.

Memories:
 * International Relations
 * A Lazy Saturday

V6 Pregame:
 * What the hell is a baseball?
 * Take me to church

Sadie Hawkins' Dance:
 * I've Got You, Under My Skin
 * Heartbeats sound so loud if they're the only noise...

V6:
 * Waking up in a strange place isn't so unusual for some...
 * AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH
 * The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead
 * Haunted Reality
 * (งಠ_ಠ)ง
 * Inner Animal
 * Lord of Lunatics
 * Say You're One of Them

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about William McKinley. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * So Will - across both portrayals - is pretty good. Although Danny's portrayal isn't the best, it's one that does fight scenes well, and the fight with Alex in his second thread is pretty enjoyable to read, both ironically and unironically. Inge's interpretation, however, is much better, and the new more relaxed demeanour and the self-awareness he gains allows him to execute the failure hero arc he has pretty well. His emotional arc as well is pretty seamless, entering a different emotional state within each different thread and flowing well from previous states and encounters, aiding in Will's development as a character and building up the revenge plot pretty well.

The issue, however, is presentation. Misspellings, improper formatting and grammar errors are littered throughout Will's story, and they actively hinder the way this story is conveyed, bringing me out of reading him and interrupting the message that's being conveyed because they're prevalent to the point where they're very hard not to notice. His death scene, in addition, has issues - in that because of particular stylistic choices and the themes Will chose to end his story with we're left with something that should be satisfying but isn't, the big moment of his story feeling underwhelming and the death post itself not feeling like a proper conclusion because it didn't grab the right things. Will is definitely good - again, across both iterations - but there are flaws that I notice, one which I feel are big enough to stop me from saying that he's straight up good, rather than a good, if flawed, experience. - Yugikun